The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-08-12

lives could be saved if they could be gotten
out, but whose death in most horrible form
was certain if the twisted wood of the
broken cars caught fire, and to fight the fire
there was not drop of water and only
some fifty able bodied men who still had
presence of mind and nerve enough to do
their duty. The only light was the light of
the burning bridge and with SO much of
Its aid the fifty men went to
work to fight the flames. For four hours
they fought like heroes, and for four hours
victory hung in the balance. Earth was
the only weapon with which the foe could
be fought, and so an attempt was made to
smother it out. There was no pick or
shovel to dig it up, no baskets or barrows to
carry it, and so desperate were they
that they dug their fingers down into the
earth, which the long drought had baked
almost as hard as stone, and heaped the
precious handfuls thus hardly won upon the
encroaching flames, and with this earth
work, built handful by handful, kept back
the foe.
UNDER THE CARS.
While this was going on, other brave men
crept underneath the wrecked cars,
beneath the fire and wooden
bar which held as prisoners so
many precious lives, and with pieces of
boards and sometimes their hands beat back
the flames when they flashed up alongside
some unfortunate wretch who, pinned down
by heavy beam, looked on helplessly
while it seemed as if his death
by fire was certain. While the
fight, was thus going on
the ears of the workers were filed with the
groans OF the dying men, the anguished en-
treaties of those whose death seemed Ger
tain, unless the terrible blaze could be ex-
tlnguished, and the cries of those too badly
hurt to care in what manner the end were
brought about so it only would be quick
So they dug up the earth with their hands,
reckless of the blood streaming out from
broken finger nails, and heaping it
up in little mounds, while all the
For Gods sake don't let us burn
to death" Finally the victory was won.
The fire was out after four hours of en-
deavor. and as its last sparks died away the
light came up in the east to take the place
of the flames, and dawn came upon the
scene of horror. While the fight had been
going on men had been dying and there
were not SO many wounded to take out of
the wreck as there had been four hours be-
fore. In the meantime the
country had been aroused, help
had come from Chatsworth. Forest and
Piper City, and as the dead were laid rev.
erently alongside of each other out in a
cornield, there were ready hands to take
them into Chatsworth, while some OF the
wounded were carried to Piper City.
THE DEATH LIST.
One hundred and eighteen was the awful
total of the dead, while the wounded num-
Der four times that many. The full total
of the dead cannot, however, be told yet
for days. Chatsworth was turned into
morgue to-day. The town hall,
engine house and depot were
all full of dead bodies, while every house in
the little village has its quota of wounded
There were over 100 corpses LAYING in ex-
temporiZed dead housess and every man and
woman was turned into an amateur but
jealous nurse. Over in the lumber yard the
noise of hammers and saws rang out in the
air and the busy carpenters were making
rough coffins to carry to their homes the
dead bodies of the excursionists
who, twelve hours before had
left their homes full of
pleasurable expectations of the enjoyment
they were going to have during the vaca-
tiol which had begun. When the news of
the disaster was first flashed over the wires
prompt aid was at once sent. DR.. Steele,
chief surgeon of the Toledo, Peoria and
Western road, had come on a special train
and with him were two other surgeons and
their assistants From Peoria also came
Drs. Martin, Baker. Fluegler and johnson,
and from every city whence the unfortu-
nate excursionists had come their physicians
and friends hurried on to help them. From
Peoria had also come delegations of the Red
Men and Ancient Order of United Work
men, numbers of both societies being on the
ill-fated train, and so after o'clock in the
morning there were plenty of people to do
the work that needed such prompt atten-
tlon. In the town hall was the main hospital
and in it anxious relatives and sorrowing
friends sat, and tanning gently the
sufferers faces, queried the attending
surgeons as they bound up the wounds
and insisted that there must be hope. Down
in the dead houses, fathers, husbands,
brothers, sisters, wives and children tear
fully inspected each face as it was uncov-
cred and sighed as the features were I'M
known, or cried out in anguish when the
well known face, sometimes fearfully man.
gied but yet recognizable, was uncovered.
The entire capacity of the little village was
taxed and kind hearted women drove in
for miles to give their gentle ministrations
to the sufferers.
ROBBERY AMONG THE wRECKAGE.
No sooner had the wreck occurred than
scene of robbery commenced. Some band
of uhspeakable miscreants, heartleSs, and
only with animal instincts, was on hand
and like the guerrilas who thronged bat
tlefeld the night after the conflict, and filch
from the dead the money which they re-
ceived for their meagre pay, stealing even
the bronze medals and robbng from the
children of heroes other worthless emblems
of their fathers bravery, so last night did
these human hyenas plunder the dead from
this terrible accident and take even the
shoes which covered their feet Who these
wretches are is not known. Whether they
were a band of pickpockets who accom-
panied the train OF some robber gang who
were lurking in the vicinity cannot be said
A horrible suspicion, however, exists, and
there are many who give it credit, that the
accident was a deliberately planned case Of
train wrecking, and that the bridge was
set on fire by miscreants who hoped to
seize the opportunity offered.
The fact that the bridge was so far con-
surned when the train came along, and the
added fact that the train was an hour and
a half late, are pointed out as evidence of
a careful conspiracy. 1t seems hardly pos
sible that man could be so lost to all the Or
dinary feeling which animates the basest Of
the human race, but still men who will rob
dead men, who will steal from the
dying and will plunder the wounded
held down by the broken beams
of wrecked cars, wounded, whose
death by fire seemed imminent can do most
anything which is base, and that is what
these fiends in human form did.
APPEALS FOR MERCY UNHEEDED.
They went into the cars when the fire was
burning fercely underneath, and, when the
poor wretcles who were pinned there
II IL. 4. Al .1..N Nl.aa.